Schumpeter held that a bourgeoisie that stops saving ushers in socialism

Evidence

As for those in the once proud investor class, they, too, now only care about consumption, thanks in part to these newly fashionable theories, with the result that both the bourgeois family unit and the ethic of saving, Smith’s sentiment, disappear from the world. As Schumpeter put it, “The bourgeoisie worked primarily … to invest, and it was not … a standard of consumption so much as a standard of accumulation that the bourgeoisie struggled for and tried to defend against the government.” Thanks to the twin forces of bureaucracy and technology, the bourgeoisie has given up this struggle. “When all is said and done, it [the bourgeoisie] does not really care.” And when no one cares for capitalism, the result is socialism. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 351

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to austerity: the death of the savings ethic underpins Schumpeter’s case for why austerity cannot restore the old order.